Our Thanksgiving

Rather than blogging separately tonight, we gather weary but pleased to report on our Thanksgiving yesterday. A week ago Saturday, we began in earnest to prepare food for the Thanksgiving. We had sent invitations to all six Mennonite churches, plus a few neighbors and colleagues. We weren't sure at all how many people to expect, but we estimated up to 150 (assuming that it would somewhat less than that).
Here's how we spent the last week:

• Monday - Cooked 15 turkey breasts & went to the market to buy a pumpkin. Practiced music with the Diego Martin Mennonite worship team in the evening.
• Tuesday - Processed the pumpkin and finished making 13 pie crusts.
• Wednesday - Decided we needed another pumpkin, so returned to the market to buy one, along with over 70 cucumbers and chives and celery for the stuffing. Baked 8 pans of stuffing.
• Thursday - Processed the second pumpkin. Cooked stewed soya chunks as a vegetarian option for our vegetarian (Hindu) guests. Spent the evening again practicing with the DMMC worship team.
• Friday - Decided we would be worn out, and needed a vacation after it was all over. Made plans to go to Tobago next week. We also looked at warmers we could borrow to keep the food warm.
• Saturday - Called the AC repair man to fix our air conditioner that had quit working the night before. Mixed pumpkin pies, and realized the recipe filled two pies instead of one. We wouldn't have needed the second 17-lb pumpkin. Baked 13 pies. Peeled and sliced about 75 cucumbers for cucumber salad. Peeled 50 pounds of potatoes. AC was repaired.

On Sunday, we were able to attend Charlieville Mennonite Church in the morning before spending the afternoon finishing all the preparations and set-up. At 5:00 that evening we gathered for our 25th Anniversary Thanksgiving celebration. As Thanksgivings here do, it began with a worship service in which Roxy & Olivia participated in quite a bit of music. The service was a fairly traditional worship service, but also included cutting a cake and Barb & Richard it to each other. Almost 100 people joined us for the worship and the feast that followed. We got to visit many people, and received many hugs. We gave away many leftovers, and still may not have to cook again until we get back to Kansas!
~Roxy, Olivia, Barb & Richard

Happy Father's Day!

Now that our time at Diego Martin Mennonite Church has come to an end, we are taking the opportunity to visit several of the other churches here that we haven't had a chance to attend since December or earlier. Today, we worshiped at Hope Mennonite Church. I had been invited to preach there. Since it was Father's Day, there were gifts presented to each of the fathers in attendance. The worship leader invited various children to come up, one at a time, and present a gift (a bottle of cologne provided by the church) to their father. We will be spending more time at Hope in a few weeks when we will be helping out with Vacation Bible School, but today is probably the last time that we'll attend on a Sunday morning.
~Richard

For most of the time we've been here, we've been meeting with the Pasea (pronounced Pajay) cell group every 3rd Tuesday of the month. It is a small group of people mostly from the Mennonite Church of Chaguanas, although there are some who switched to Hope Mennonite Church, who meet every Tuesday for a Bible study. We met with them for the last time last Tuesday and got a second set of souvenirs. At church in Diego Martin last week, we got a wall hanging of an area in Port of Spain, a Trinidad&Tobago bottle opener and 2 Trinidad&Tobago spoons. In addition to that, on Tuesday my dad got a shirt with a T&T flag, my mom got oven mitts saying "A true Trini loves sweet pan music" (referring to the steel pan, the national instrument) and Roxy and I each got a Trinidad&Tobago bag. We might not have to buy any souvenirs ourselves!
~Olivia

We have written before about the celebrations people here have to commemorate important events. Hindus have prayers, Muslims have readings and Christians have thanksgivings. Each group begins with a time of religious observance - each in their own traditions - after which there is a time of feasting. We have been to prayers once and to many thanksgivings. We decided that it would only be right to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary with a thanksgiving. So, with our other duties reduced, we are devoting our time last week and in the week to come to getting things ready for that. We concluded that for us to try to make the traditional Trini food would be scary. Although we love it and are learning to cook many delicious foods, our level of expertise compared to our guests would be like that of a typical first grader trying to read from a Dickens novel. So, instead, we have committed to an American Thanksgiving meal. On Friday Richard and I went to the Trini version of Sam's Club and bought 15 turkey breasts, 14 loaves of bread for stuffing, two spray bottles of whipped cream, 6 cases of soda or water, 20 aluminum roasting pans and 200 paper plates. We expect to have closer to 100 than 200 guests, but they sell things in bulk there. On Saturday we baked about 14 dozen rolls. Now my nightmares begin in which we either find that no one has shown up or that so many have come that we have not got enough food. Yikes!
~Barb

Yesterday afternoon (Saturday), there was a meeting downstairs in the church, and so Olivia and I decided to go also. There were youth from Carlsenfield Mennonite Church and Sangre Grande Mennonite Church who were there for a puppet seminar. Carlsenfield has already done some with puppets, and so they're very interested in a puppet ministry. A man named Anton was in charge of the seminar. For a while he talked about how a puppet ministry is a way of spreading God's love, and then he instructed how to use puppets and also what not to do with puppets. Then he handed out puppets to everyone and we all practiced using them, giving them voices and having them say something. At the end they had refreshments, but Olivia and I just came upstairs and ate supper!
~Roxy

One More Month in Trinidad

Last week, when I went to school to take the exam, I had arranged with one of my teachers to work on something. However, she got stuck in traffic and by the time she got there, we had already left. Although it didn't work out that day, we still needed to go in and take books and stuff back, so I was able to arrange with her to work on it on Friday. I think there were 7 students, one teacher and the principal there that day. So, then after lunch we all played football (soccer). It was the three boys against the four girls. I did what I had hoped to with my teacher and had fun playing football!
~Olivia

This was a big weekend for us at the church we have been filling in at while we are here. Yesterday we led a visioning workshop for them from about 9:00-3:00. We had a good turn out and good participation. We felt very good about the whole day and hope we left them empowered and energized. Then today was our last Sunday there. They began the service by singing one of the songs we taught them - Praise, I will praise you Lord. - noting their appreciation for our work together. I found I had a lump in my throat. There were other words of appreciation and a few Trini souvenirs given to us. It was a good, full weekend.
Exactly one month from today we will return home to KS. In many ways we are really looking forward to that. We miss our families and friends there. We miss our church there. But we are also realizing how hard it is to say good bye. We are so blessed to have been touched by so many lovely people both here and at home.
~Barb

For a little while now, we have been thinking about having a Thanksgiving. I think we've mentioned those before, but they're basically a little service and then a meal in celebration of something. My parents' 25th wedding anniversary was at the end of May, and so this would be partly to celebrate that, and also partly to celebrate our time here in Trinidad. So we've officially decided to have a Thanksgiving on the 27th of June at the church we live above. So on Friday, while Olivia was at school, I went to Trincity Mall with my parents. We got invitations to hand out, a guest book for people to sign, and shiny purple balloons to decorate! While we were there, we ran into one of the pastors and his daughter! So we gave him the invitation for his church and talked to him for a little. My parents had to go to pick up Olivia from school, but Navin (the pastor) offered to take me with him and his daughter to see The Karate Kid. So I went along with him while my parents went and got Olivia. When we came out of the movie, my parents and Olivia were waiting for us. Then we drove home to realize we were out of electricity, as Daddy will explain.
~Roxy

After being gone most of the day on Friday, we returned home at about 6:30 to discover that we were out of electricity. It wasn't long, however, before we saw the crew arrive from T&TEC (Trinidad & Tobago Electrical Commission). We went to our apartment windows on and off over the next several hours to watch the workers as they removed and replaced a section of wire. We do have several candles, a flashlight and a nice battery-powered reading light that we were able to use to see as the evening went on. The biggest issue was that without electricity, we had no air conditioning or even fan to keep cool. It got quite warm in the apartment, especially as we burned several candles to keep the place lit. Meanwhile, members of Charlieville Mennonite Church gathered downstairs for their annual business meeting, which was also conducted by candlelight. Finally, about ten minutes before the meeting ended, power was restored. We were really glad to have power back so we could cool down the apartment before we went to sleep.
~Richard

Ministry, Music and Mangoes

Our time working at Diego Martin Mennonite Church is soon coming to an end. The regular pastor, Rawl Gunpath, will be returning from his sabbatical in just over a week. Today we celebrated our last communion with the congregation. (Communion is observed on the first Sunday of each month.) This afternoon I attended the monthly meeting of Mennonite pastors for the last time as well. Next week will be our final worship service at Diego Martin.
This past Friday evening was to be the annual business meeting for the congregation. However, the official meeting didn't take place due to the lack of a quorum. There was still a great deal of discussion among those who were present regarding what needs to happen in the church to help revitalize it. It was an important time for people to express some of their fears and frustrations with the fact that numbers have been dwindling for some time. In the end, though, there was strong affirmation to continue working to create a vision that can be embraced to guide the church in its renewal efforts. Some of this work began a couple of weeks ago when Barb led church members in a brief visioning workshop immediately following the worship service. Today, it was decided to continue that process next Saturday in a day-long meeting at the church. So while our work will soon end at Diego Martin, it is our prayer that our efforts will assist the congregation in its mission for some time after we have returned home.
~Richard

On Friday, I took the second (and final) part of my exams. It was nice to go back to school and see people for that. Luckily this exam didn't take nearly as long as the first one had! In fact, I got there around 8:30, talked to my friends I hadn't seen for a while and then the test started at 9:00, and we were done by 10:00. The principal had e-mailed me some stuff to review since I hadn't been at school to do the review, so I looked over that and the test went pretty well. Although, I'm not sure I'll be able to get my results back since they're not supposed to come until August, and we won't be in Trinidad by then. So, I may never get back my results, which would be too bad. My friend said she'll get them for me and let me know, but we'll have to see. But, it was nice that this test didn't go nearly as long as the first one!
~Olivia

Last night (Saturday), we attended our first Trini wedding! We had hoped we'd be able to see one while we were here, and a couple from the Mennonite churches got married last night. They had asked Olivia and I to do some music, and we ended up doing 4 numbers (including the processional and recessional) during it. We kind of had to think on our feet, because we weren't sure how long anything would take. There had been a rehearsal a few nights before, but we weren't really sure how long things would take because they hadn't had all their things there. In the end I think it went really well. The wedding really wasn't that different from an American wedding. At the reception, we saw lots of music we wouldn't in the States, though. There was a man who played 3 songs on steel pan, a tassa band (which got very loud when we were standing right next to them), and a girl danced to some traditional Indian music. We also had a big meal afterward. It was really nice to see a Trini wedding and kind of fun to play in one too!
~Roxy

It's mango season in Trinidad! As the rainy season returned last month, the mangoes, which had been nesting in trees for months, finally came ready. One family in our church has many trees and knows we love mangoes. We recieved our first box of mangoes from them a couple of weeks ago. In it they noted were three types of mangoes: Julies (often thought to be the best and generally our favorite), longs and box & spice. We still had a few left when our guests arrived last week. But far be it from Trini's to let our guests run out. They brought us another box last week. So for almost 2 weeks we have been eating mangoes once or twice a day. Then on Thursday some other friends wanted to take us down south to visit a church camp owned by another missionary here. As we walked through the beautiful camp, we saw piles of mangoes all over - in the trees, on the ground, some rotting, some waiting just for us. There were 3 families on this trek and we all took home another box or bag of mangoes, plus some fresh limes. Then, at the church meeting on Friday, our first friends from church decided we would be ready for some new varieties of mangoes. We haven't even had the chance yet to try the starch and doloos mangoes they sent home with us. I never feel so rich as when I have a kitchen full of fresh fruit. I've never seen so many mangoes in my life, but I'm still loving them! They are definitely something I will miss.
~Barb

Family Visit

It's been a while since our last entry because we've been busy with visiting family for the past week. My mother, sister and two nephews (ages 18 and 20) spent the last eight days with us. For my mom and nephews, it was their first time to travel outside of the U.S. and Canada. We enjoyed the opportunity to take a bit of "vacation" time as we explored a few new places that we hadn't yet visited in Trinidad, and returned to some of our favorite sites on the island.
They arrived on the evening of May 24, which was also the day of the eagerly-awaited election here. There had been some concern about some possible unrest and potential violence, but the election came off without a hitch. There were some long lines at the polls, and a few complaints of irregularities, but nothing more out-of-the-ordinary than the United States has experienced in recent elections. In the end, we witnessed the election of the first-ever female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Her election wasn't especially surprising, but the margin of victory was rather astounding. Her party nearly doubled the number of seats it holds in parliament as it moved from 15 members to 29. One of the notable differences between the parliamentary system and the American system is that she took office almost immediately, having been sworn in less than 48 hours after the polls closed. Her entire cabinet was in place by the end of the week.
~Richard

The day after our guests arrived was Richard and my 25th wedding anniversary. The group was interested in seeing the leatherback turtles nesting. Trinidad is one of the few places in the world you can see this. Since the best beach for this is quite a drive (about two and a half hours from us), we decided to celebrate our anniversary by going overnight to a charming Caribbean Inn in turtle country. Although we had seen the turtles once before with another set of guests, this time we went farther in, and because it was later in the season, we got to see, hold and release some of the tiny hatchlings. They stayed in our hands paddling with their fins as we listened in the rain to the guide describe their slim chance of survival. Then, after watching several adult turtles lay their eggs, we walked to the moonlit shore and released these babies into the ocean. It was both sad and hopeful. Mostly, it was sweet. We had such a good time that we said we just might have to return for our 50th anniversary.
~Barb

One of the fun things that we did with our family here (that we'd wanted to do but hadn't yet) was going 'Down D Islands'. There are some tiny islands off the far northwest tip of Trinidad. We got there right on time, but, as it is in Trinidad, everything took longer than we expected it to. First we had to go to about 3 different buildings just to get the tickets and everything to get on the boat. Then we got to the Chaguramas Port and waited for a long time more for another group that was joining us on the tour. Once we boarded the boat, the ride itself was surprisingly short. Then we tied up the boat at the edge of Gaspar Grande, one of the islands off the coast. There are others that we could have gotten boats to, also, but Gaspar Grande has this big cave, Gasparee Cave, which is where we were headed. One thing that surprised me, when we tied up the boat, was that Gaspar Grande really didn't have a beach. They said that lots of limestone was found on the island. Then we walked uphill for a while (following this cute little dog they called Pumpkin) until we got to a house that was owned by the tour organization. We rested there for a while (and ate) and then walked down to the cave entrance! Our guide was really good, because he grew up playing in the cave before they had steps and everything. He said that there was a tree sticking out of one of the holes, and they'd slide down the tree and then dive into the pool at the bottom of the cave! Then they installed steps and, our guide said, took all the fun out of getting down there. We hadn't brought swimsuits, because we hadn't heard anything about swimming, and in fact there were signs down there saying we couldn't. But our guide let some people swim anyways. I liked how he let us climb all over and there weren't really things in the cave we couldn't touch! When we got back out of the cave and sat on the balcony of the house I mentioned earlier, the breeze felt amazingly cool after the stuffiness of the cave! We just sat on the balcony for a while and watched the ocean (and ate). When everyone was out of the cave, we headed back to the boat and then back to Trinidad!
~Roxy

On Sunday there was another joint service, since it was the 5th Sunday in May. All six Mennonite churches met at Sangre Grande Mennonite Church. This was the last joint service we'll be in Trinidad for. Our guests were still here, so we all rode up to Sangre Grande in the van we rented. There was a church service and then a meal afterward. Since it was Indian Arrival Day (a holiday celebrating the arrival of Indians as indentured servants in 1845), they prepared an Indian meal. It included fried rice, stewed chicken, salad, macaroni pie and some Indian sweets: kurma, barfi and cake. It's very exciting because each time we go to the joint services, we know more people. Actually, at this one, there were more people from Sangre Grande since that's where the service was being held and I don't know those people as well, so maybe that's not so much true for this one. But, I was still somewhat surprised how many people I did know.
Our guests left early this morning, and we very much enjoyed having them here.
~Olivia